Arthur Sze, the first Poet Laureate of Santa Fe, is the author of numerous poetry collections, including The Glass Constellation: New and Collected Poems and The Silk Dragon II: Translations of Chinese Poetry (Copper Canyon Press, 2024). The recipient of several awards, including a 2022 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, Sze is also a chancellor at the Academy of American Poets. He lives in Santa Fe and is a professor emeritus at the Institute of American Indian Arts.

Photograph by Jennifer Brummett.

Lichen Song

by Arthur Sze

—Snow in the air     you’ve seen a crust on the ceiling wood and never considered how I gather moisture when you step out of the shower     you don’t care that I respire as you breathe     for years you’ve washed your face gazed in the mirror shaved combed your hair rushed out while I who may grow an inch in a thousand years catch the tingling sunlight     you don’t understand how I can dive

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